After putting the bowl on the trolley, he pulled the blanket up over her and reached for the apples she’d tucked in against her side.
She moved so fast he didn’t have time to move out of striking distance before the spoon he’d just set aside flashed down in an arc and slammed into the back of his hand.
“Mine.”
He hissed and then snarled, snatching the spoon from her hand. She didn’t try and hold on to it. In fact, he wasn’t sure she was really aware she’d lashed out at all.
Could it have been instinct? Even exhausted and hurt, had the little human had enough strength of will to try and protect her small stash of food?
“The apples are yours. No more spoons for you, though. Sleep, little human. When you wake, I have questions for you.”
2
“You’re an asshole. You know that. Right?” Serena demanded a few weeks later. She’d healed from her initial injury, but despite the fact her scent was still not that of an omega, Kinn refused to release her to the beta population.
She glared up at the tall blond healer, currently working on an injured warrior. He was ignoring her. Again. She huffed under her breath, handing him the next instrument he would ask for before he’d asked for it.
He was an asshole. An alien asshole. A sexy alien asshole, but there was no way on what remained of the Earth she would ever tell him that. He’d only get ideas. She would have said he’d get a big head, but he already had that. If she had to hear about him being the premier healer in the clan one more time…
He made a low, rumbling noise that might have been his way of saying thank you. Or maybe he had a hairball. Did the Tolath get those? Probably not. Still, the idea amused her enough she filed it away as a future potential insult.
“You’re welcome,” she said, knowing that would annoy him, too. She’d learned early on that what little gentleness he had vanished the moment another alien asshole stepped foot in the healing hall. So she went out of her way to make it seem like he was kinder than he was actually being. It drove him to distraction, and she delighted in it.
Small delights were all she really had right now. Oh, there was plenty of food, warm blankets, and a safe place to sleep, but she was still a prisoner—one who was running out of time. If she didn’t get away from the arrogant asshole alien soon, he’d learn one of the humans’ last secrets.
She couldn’t let that happen.
He closed up the wound on the semi-conscious warrior on the table in front of them. Since she’d arrived, she’d seen the aliens in all kinds of conditions and with a wide range of injuries. Kinn treated all who came through the door unless he considered that the injury was either self-inflicted or one without honor. He’d refused to treat two L’crav warriors yesterday. Even though she didn’t like the idea of any being in pain, she didn’t like any of the L’crav either. They watched her with angry, dark eyes, and seemed totally separate from Kinn and his friends.
As far as she could work out, they were newer and from a different family or original area of space. Hard to tell. Kinn wasn’t a talker unless it was about her or her family and friends. He worked at her as relentlessly as an interrogator, trying to make her slip up and give him some information… any information.
She hadn’t. For one, too many people relied on her keeping quiet for their survival, and two, her sister was probably even more stubborn than Kinn.
She missed Max. They’d survived by sticking by each other no matter what, and now she was a prisoner and no one had any idea where she was or even if she was still breathing.
None of the betas she’d seen had been willing to even make eye contact with her. They did their jobs and moved on in silence. It was fucking creepy because she knew it was an act. The only one who’d reacted to her at all was the Mother Superior, but so far they hadn’t had a chance to do more than flash a brief signal acknowledging each other.
Maybe she’d be able to get word to Max. Maybe not. Things inside Zabor T’ah, the Tolathian citadel, were in flux right now. The transfer of power hadn’t been smooth. There was tension between the L’crav and the H’thor, too. She’d managed to gather that much from the snippets of conversations she’d overheard as warriors waited for one of their number to be patched up after yet another fight. That’s all these aliens seemed to do. Fight, fuck, and talk to each other about how good they were at both. It was infuriating and ridiculous at the same time. At least she hadn’t had to put up with Kinn boasting about his sexual prowess. She might have had to beat him to death with a pillow.
Perhaps because of her preoccupation, she didn’t think to check their patient as she moved around cleaning up. She was usually wary of the big alien warriors, but she’d thought this one, about the size of a small building with a gash like a crater in the back of his head, was out for the count. Kinn wouldn’t have left her alone with one of them otherwise, and right now he was locking up the surgical kit where she couldn’t get to it… in his office.
Then, the supposedly out cold alien clamped a hard hand around her wrist, dragging her toward him.
“Mine.”
“No!” she yelled, turning it into a one-word battle cry. She locked her hands together and used her arms like a club, bashing any part of him she could reach. Fear and fury came together, fueled by weeks of good food and decent rest.
She’d been a fighter her whole life, but she’d always been held back by the realities of life in the desolate wastelands. Now? She was stronger than ever, and no one was going to try and claim her. No. One.
A roar shook the walls of the hall and something huge and snarling hurtled past her, breaking the warrior’s grip on her waist.
She staggered backward, tripped over the wounded warrior’s discarded bag, and fell to the floor hard enough to rattle her teeth. She didn’t feel any pain, though. All she was aware of was the massive form of an alien in full beast mode as he threw the other warrior around like a meat puppet with its strings cut.
Her eyes widened. It was…
That was Kinn.
She scuttled backward as he marched to the door, tore it open and threw the other alien through it. She was still scuttling backward when he turned around and stalked toward her, still fully shifted. His handsome features had transformed into the face of the beast. He was even bigger, massive now, with armor plates covering every inch of skin.
A whimper escaped her as her back hit the wall and she tried to make herself as small as possible. Invisible. She needed to be invisible. When an alpha shifted to beast form like this, women like her died.
He tore away the tattered remains of his shirt with one clawed hand, his all-black eyes locked on her. Prey. That was the biggest damned predator she’d ever seen, and he saw her as prey.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She drew up her legs and wrapped her arms around them, crouching down to make herself as small as she could.
He kept coming, his lips turned up in a silent snarl that showed his fangs. With the shirt gone and his plating active, she could see the dark markings that decorated his chest. The swirling lines were strangely attractive… No. She gave herself a mental shake. That was a really bad idea. That was a beast, not a man. Not attractive at all.
“Serena.” Her name on his lips was little more than a growl.